Moritz von Oswald Trio

Fetch - Excellent, Based on 4 Critics

AllMusic - 90Based on rating 9/10

90

The fourth album from Moritz von Oswald Trio in the same number of years, Fetch -- like the studio albums Vertical Ascent and Horizontal Structures -- consists of four lengthy pieces. This time, arranger, and director von Oswald (string boards, electric piano), Vladislav Delay ("otherworld objects," typically percussive in nature), and Max Loderbauer (synthesizer) are joined by Marc Muellbauer (bass), as well as Jonas Schoen (saxophone, bass clarinet, flute) and Sebastian Studnitzky (trumpet). If you glance at the list of instrumentation and are familiar with the trio's previous work, you might not be stunned that this set stirs up flashbacks to early-'70s Herbie Hancock.

For the last three years Moritz von Oswald Trio have focused their groove research on the creation of an improvised and electro-acoustic interface between fusion-era Miles Davis and dub techno. With each new album they've presented a slightly different permutation this interface. The hypnotic sound of their debut, Vertical Ascent, rested upon a skeletal and monochromatic industrial pulse—muscular, yet streamlined.

There’s a hypothetical nightclub that, at present, exists solely in my imagination: it’s a hybrid combination of the Star Wars bar, the Korova in A Clockwork Orange, and that weirdo Canadian clubhouse from Fire Walk With Me. In it, the barkeeps might serve burbling broths of kombucha and gin, or ayahuasca in a hollowed-out pineapple, shaded by cocktail umbrellas, perhaps with some sort of delectable psychotropic hors d'oeuvres on the side. It would be a place where earthly and celestial creatures of all shapes, sizes, colours, and cultures could commingle and work out their differences in a relaxed, comfortable environment.